Bata, Tímea – Jakab, Albert Zsolt (eds.): Departure and Arrival: Migratory Processes and Local Responses from Ethnographic and Anthropological Perspective. L’Harmattan – Hungarian Ethnographical Society – Kriza János Ethnographic Society – Museum of Ethnography, Budapest–Cluj-Napoca, 135–159, 2019
In the first half of the 19th century, Czech colonists have established several colonies, especia... more In the first half of the 19th century, Czech colonists have established several colonies, especially in the wood-covered mountains found along the lower reaches of the Danube, in the south-western region of Romania. Before the regime change, Romania had a Czech population of 5500. After 1989, the Czech-speaking, Roman Catholic population has become involved in an increased outward migration to Czech Republic. According to the 1992 census, their population numbered 5797 persons. The 2011 census put their numbers at 2477, which means a 57% decrease in less than a decade.
What do the figures reflect? What kind of migration patterns are at work here, and what is the fate of the source communities? How do the meanings attached to the localities of origin change among Czech emigrants? How does the native land appear in the migration discourse? And how do the Czech tourists from the motherland, looking for traditional rurality, the experience of exoticism, and “time travel”, influence the ethnicity of the Czechs living in Romania?
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Papers by Lehel Peti
The study describes the settlement, the way of life and situation of the Czechs in the Banat after the regime change in 1989. Since the first half of the 19th century, the Czechs arriving in several waves, established their own settlements in the south-western part of the country, in the mountains covered with forests along the banks of the Danube. Initially they were engaged in logging, then in mining during the Communist Era. Before the regime change, their number was around 5,500, but it fell to 1,576 in 2021, partly due to the natural decline of the population and partly because of the immigration of the younger generation to the Czech Republic. Since then, remigration and ethnic tourism from the mother country have increased. The study seeks to answer the following questions: which migration patterns prevail, what happened to the communities of origin, how its meaning has been transformed among Czech migrants, how the homeland is represented in migration discourse and how Czechs from the motherland are seeking traditional rurality, exotic experiences and “time travel”, in turn influencing the ethnicity of ethnic Czechs in Romania.
with them. In these situations, the experiences of the Csángós in Hungary impacted the way they lived their Csángó ethnicity, their reflections on those in Hungary and on themselves, and, all in all, their subsequent attitudes and opinions towards the Hungarian national community
The first part of the article presents the contemporary situation of the village and the context of migration strategies. The present migration practices of the villagers are short-term and long-term labour migration in foreign states. After the introductory chapter the analytical chapter deals with the presentation of specific situations that can be identified from the interviews the author conducted and explores in what way the various migration strategies have influenced the linguistic socialization of children. In this part, besides the detailed case studies revealing individual motivations, further ethnographic material is being analysed to contextualize the problem that is the target of the article.
The last part approaches the factors influencing the linguistic socialization of the children of guest workers form multiple perspectives. The author investigates what role the ideas formed about the education of children play in decision-making about guest work, and also what compromises the increasing prestige of education requires with regard to practices of labour migration. The author reflects upon the role elderly people play in the transmission of native language in the context of migration.
There is a considerable distance and difference between Csángó dialects and Hungarian language spoken in Transylvania and in Hungary. As a consequence, the Educational Program can be characterised with a paradox of objectives in relation to the linguistic revitalisation of Csángó speech and the education of reading and writing in standard Hungarian language. The authors present such an alternative educational concept that takes into consideration local circumstances, meanwhile it is in harmony with formerly proven models of successful linguistic revitalisation. A major element of this is the creation or reinforcement of a relationship and communication between children and members of the elderly generation still speaking Hungarian language and partly knowing Hungarian folklore, as well as a reinforcement of an ethnographically sensitive perspective of teachers and instructors within the framework of the educational program.
What do the figures reflect? What kind of migration patterns are at work here, and what is the fate of the source communities? How do the meanings attached to the localities of origin change among Czech emigrants? How does the native land appear in the migration discourse? And how do the Czech tourists from the motherland, looking for traditional rurality, the experience of exoticism, and “time travel”, influence the ethnicity of the Czechs living in Romania?
The study describes the settlement, the way of life and situation of the Czechs in the Banat after the regime change in 1989. Since the first half of the 19th century, the Czechs arriving in several waves, established their own settlements in the south-western part of the country, in the mountains covered with forests along the banks of the Danube. Initially they were engaged in logging, then in mining during the Communist Era. Before the regime change, their number was around 5,500, but it fell to 1,576 in 2021, partly due to the natural decline of the population and partly because of the immigration of the younger generation to the Czech Republic. Since then, remigration and ethnic tourism from the mother country have increased. The study seeks to answer the following questions: which migration patterns prevail, what happened to the communities of origin, how its meaning has been transformed among Czech migrants, how the homeland is represented in migration discourse and how Czechs from the motherland are seeking traditional rurality, exotic experiences and “time travel”, in turn influencing the ethnicity of ethnic Czechs in Romania.
with them. In these situations, the experiences of the Csángós in Hungary impacted the way they lived their Csángó ethnicity, their reflections on those in Hungary and on themselves, and, all in all, their subsequent attitudes and opinions towards the Hungarian national community
The first part of the article presents the contemporary situation of the village and the context of migration strategies. The present migration practices of the villagers are short-term and long-term labour migration in foreign states. After the introductory chapter the analytical chapter deals with the presentation of specific situations that can be identified from the interviews the author conducted and explores in what way the various migration strategies have influenced the linguistic socialization of children. In this part, besides the detailed case studies revealing individual motivations, further ethnographic material is being analysed to contextualize the problem that is the target of the article.
The last part approaches the factors influencing the linguistic socialization of the children of guest workers form multiple perspectives. The author investigates what role the ideas formed about the education of children play in decision-making about guest work, and also what compromises the increasing prestige of education requires with regard to practices of labour migration. The author reflects upon the role elderly people play in the transmission of native language in the context of migration.
There is a considerable distance and difference between Csángó dialects and Hungarian language spoken in Transylvania and in Hungary. As a consequence, the Educational Program can be characterised with a paradox of objectives in relation to the linguistic revitalisation of Csángó speech and the education of reading and writing in standard Hungarian language. The authors present such an alternative educational concept that takes into consideration local circumstances, meanwhile it is in harmony with formerly proven models of successful linguistic revitalisation. A major element of this is the creation or reinforcement of a relationship and communication between children and members of the elderly generation still speaking Hungarian language and partly knowing Hungarian folklore, as well as a reinforcement of an ethnographically sensitive perspective of teachers and instructors within the framework of the educational program.
What do the figures reflect? What kind of migration patterns are at work here, and what is the fate of the source communities? How do the meanings attached to the localities of origin change among Czech emigrants? How does the native land appear in the migration discourse? And how do the Czech tourists from the motherland, looking for traditional rurality, the experience of exoticism, and “time travel”, influence the ethnicity of the Czechs living in Romania?
This volume is part of the monograph series on national minorities, published by the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, titled the “Minorities Series” (Colecția Minorități). Most authors of this monograph are local intellectuals. Due to their knowledge of place and culture, as well as, in some cases, on the basis of their engagement, they are also actors involved in the public construction of the Slovak minority. The intellectual elite and the researchers of the Slovak ethnic group have been continuously observing the minority situation they have experienced and in whose development they have been actively involved. The minority institutional systems could not, with few exceptions, provide a basis and support for scientific researches. Thus, there were few possibilities for more encompassing syntheses, objective and methodical analyses to be worked out, and the mostly local historical studies that got published have hardly made it to the scientific and public sphere, as they would have deserved. I compiling this monograph we sought to remedy this lack as well.
This volume is aimed at a monographic description of the Slovak minority’s situation in Romania. It contains the following thematic chapters: the historical context of colonization, demographic trends, elements of cultural heritage and forms of preservation of the Slovak minority’s popular traditions, their organizations and relations with the Slovak state, the use of their mother tongue, places and rituals of memory, the educational system, a case study on the various aspects of Slovakian community life in Arad County, with special emphasis on ethnicity, as well as the chronology of the Slovak minority.
This volume is part of the monograph series on national minorities, published by the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, titled the “Minorities Series” (Colecția Minorități). Most authors of this monograph are local intellectuals. Due to their knowledge of place and culture, as well as, in some cases, on the basis of their engagement, they are also actors involved in the public construction of the Czech minority. The intellectual elite and the researchers of the Czech ethnic group have been continuously observing the minority situation they have experienced and in whose development they have been actively involved. The minority institutional systems could not, with few exceptions, provide a basis and support for scientific researches. Thus, there were few possibilities for more encompassing syntheses, objective and methodical analyses to be worked out, and the mostly local historical studies that got published have hardly made it to the scientific and public sphere, as they would have deserved. I compiling this monograph we sought to remedy this lack as well.
This volume is aimed at a monographic description of the Czech minority’s situation in Romania’s Banat region. It contains the following thematic chapters: the historical context of colonization, demographic trends, the organization of political and economic life, the educational system, the organization of ecclesiastic and religious life, places and rituals of memory, elements of cultural heritage and forms of preservation of the Czech minority’s popular traditions, a study on the post-December period, with special emphasis on the institutional system and on the relations with the Czech state, as well as an ample chronology of the Czech minority.
The Moldavian Csángós have a special place among the national, ethnic or religious minorities of Europe due to their indigenous culture, particular identities and the various national social imaginaries and the political attention turned towards them. That statement is supported by the unusually wide attention paid by the social sciences, ethnology, different branches of linguistics, history and so on. Besides the scholars of Hungarian and Romanian nationality, international researchers also started to investigate different social scientific issues related to the Csángós mainly in the last 20 years.
We put the following questions:
1. Since the fall of the communist regime, the Csángó research has been a well-known and visibly shaping field of studies both in the humanities and the social sciences being strongly tied to entire domain of the “Csángó question”, the “Csángó renaissance” (Tánczos 2003). The domain of the Csángó question is very much politicized and full of various (especially national) ideologies, both among Hungarians, as well as the Romanian one. According to your opinion, can one talk about the field of Csángó studies? If so, in what sense, what kind of actors take part in the field and what are the main features of the field? How can you describe the relationship between doing research about the Moldavian Csángós and doing advocacy work on their behalf?
2. What are the personal and scholarly reasons for finding the research on the Csángó society important for you?
3. Have you acquired such significant personal experiences during your research on the Csángó issue, which you consider to be a changemaker in your way of thinking and worldview? Please, specify and share them with us!
4. Should you name only one (or two at the most) important scholarly finding(s) what you have achieved during your investigation on or among the Moldavian Csángós, what would that be? We are more than happy to hear them!
5. What kinds of topics and fields are still missing from the scientific body of research on the Moldavian Csángós? What would you suggest to be investigated in the future? On the other hand, what are the relevant, but missing or suppressed issues of the non-scholarly domain of the Csángó question that require further discussion?
6. How do you evaluate the results achieved so far of the Hungarian education program operating in the Csángó villages? What kind of future do you visualize for the Moldavian Csángó education program? Are there any structural, ideological or methodological etc. parts of the project which, according to your opinion, should work differently in an ideal setting? What would you change in it without making too much trouble about?
7. The Hungarian education program has been the site of scholarly debates since its foundation, especially in connection with language usage, whether the Hungarian standard should be taught to children or the local version of Hungarian. These two approaches vary in their methodological and ideological goals, moreover, they differ considerably in the language policy they prefer to follow. What are the reasons for which the different parties cannot be in agreement? Is there an attainable middle ground for them at all?
8. Every research and statistics register the far-gone phase of the process of language shift among the Moldavian Csángós. How do you envision the future of the Csángó society? Where and how will a “natural setting of the usage” of the Moldavian Csángó dialect be born? Or is it a utopia in itself?
9. What do you think about the direct and long-term effects of migration from the Moldavian Csángó settlements? What could be the sociocultural and economic problems migration flows cause to the people living in various Csángó villages? What kind of suggestions would you make to solve or ameliorate the above-mentioned problems?